Rainy Days
by SnowRoseQueen
Summary: AU. He seemed like a cheerful boy, who had no worries in his life. Yuzu would never expect that meeting him will be the beginning of a series of strange, unsettling events that are going to change her life forever. And it all began on that one rainy day...
1. In the Rain

Note: This is the first time I'm writing a story in English (it is not my mother language). If you find the wording strange, please let me know. I hope you will enjoy this story :)

**\- Chapter 1: In the Rain -**

The blue sky from the morning vanished somewhere behind grey rainclouds. A few tiny drops fell from the sky and then, merely a seconds later it was pouring. In the rain, the world looked as though it lost all its light and color. The happiness seemed to be washed away as well, and only a strange, depressing aura filled the air.

Trying to get home as fast as possible, Yuzu rushed through the streets. She didn't have an umbrella and, to tell the truth, the rain actually surprised her. The weather in the morning was so nice she would had never thought it would change so drastically.

The cold rain poured at her mercilessly. Her clothes were completely soaked by now, but she was trying her best to ignore it. In her mind she kept telling herself she would get home soon. She only had to cross the street now and... She suddenly stopped in her tracks.

Red light.

Just perfect, she thought to herself as she waited impatiently for the light to change. She took a look around and only then she realized that the streets were completely empty.

Oh, of course. Everybody just hid in their warm, dry houses. Who would want to walk around in this rain?

And yet it was odd. It wasn't a small city. There was always somebody here or there. But that was not the only thing that stroke her as unusual. Now that she thought about it, the light should had already changed to green. But it didn't. It remained red as though it wanted to make fun of her.

She shook her head. Of course that was impossible. Lights didn't have minds, after all.

She didn't get to dwell on that thought for too long though, as she heard a voice calling to her from behind.

"Hey. You seem like you could use an umbrella."

She turned around and saw a boy with the strangest hair color she had ever seen – it was red and topped with green. The boy's bright red eyes were full of life and a cheerful smile played on his lips. He held an umbrella right above her head protecting her from the rain.

Still very surprised, she thanked him quickly and smiled awkwardly. He shook his head and then, all of a sudden, took her hand into his, then placed it on the umbrella handle. She was confused, but he only said:

"Here, take it. You need it more than I do." And before she managed to reply, he smiled warmly, waved goodbye at her and left running.

She kept standing there even after he vanished in the distance. What a strange guy, she thought and blushed a little bit, smiling to herself. He was strange, but nice. She didn't thank him for the umbrella, though... Well, she would get a chance to do that next time she saw him. She had no doubt that they would meet again. That uniform he was wearing. It was the same as the one the students of her school wore. He seemed to be her age... so she probably didn't have to look too far away to find him.

Then she remembered about the traffic light. She quickly turned to look at it, expecting that it yet again changed to red, but...

The light shone in a bright green color as though it waited just for her.

* * *

She let a laugh while talking to her classmates. Yuzu didn't think much about what happened yesterday, but when her friends started asking if she was alright, they knew she didn't took her umbrella, Yuzu smiled and told them about the strange boy she met.

Of course, she didn't forget to tell them about the boy's weird hair color or how she didn't even manage to say anything, because he ran away. When she finished her story she looked at her classmates with a big smile on her face. She was hoping that they would tell her who the mysterious boy was, but to her surprised they stared at her with wide eyes.

She asked them what was wrong, but they only shifted uncomfortably. Yuzu didn't know what to think of it. She gave them a confused look.

Her classmates looked at each other as they were silently trying to communicate and make some kind of decision. Finally one of them let a sigh.

"Oh, c'mon. This is stupid. There's no way she met _him_!"

Yuzu asked what did she mean by that. Met who? Did they think she was lying?

"No, that's not it." Her classmate moved a little closer to her. "But, you know, weird tomato colored hair, red eyes, always smiling... there is only one guy I knew who could fit that description."

Yuzu found the wording to be a bit strange, but she chose not to say anything about it. She needed to know who it was.

The girls shivered a little.

"Yuzu, he..."

"His name was Yuya Sakaki." The other informed quietly.

_Was_. Why did they speak of him in past tense? Unless...

The girls fell silent and Yuzu just stared at them completely stunned.

Finally the silence was broken by one of her classmates, who in a soft, trembling whisper said:

"He... died in an accident."

* * *

Yuzu couldn't just leave this alone. She didn't know why. Maybe she didn't want to believe that she met a ghost. It was impossible. Ghosts don't just walk around and give umbrellas to girls. They don't smile. They don't look so... alive and happy. Or at least that was what she thought.

And so she tried to find out as much as she could by asking around about who exactly was Yuya Sakaki and what happened to him. It surprised her how little she learnt. Yuya was the one with strange hair color, always smiling – that was all what people remembered about him. Other than that? Nothing. Apparently he had some kind of accident, but nobody knew what exactly happened. Nobody knew anything about his family. He didn't have any friends at school. Even on pictures that showed the entire class he was always absent. Almost as if nobody realized he had ever existed until she asked about him. It was sad and made her angry at these people. The boy she met back then didn't deserve to be treated that way.

After her little investigation Yuzu remained silent for the rest of the day. She wondered what happened to Yuya Sakaki. She just knew she didn't meet a ghost back then, even though everything seemed to scream to her otherwise. Her mind wandered back to her home, to the umbrella that was supposed to be in there. That was the only proof she had. The only proof she really met that boy.

The meeting. The boy. The umbrella. All of that wasn't just a dream, was it?

She wasn't so sure anymore.

When Yuzu returned home she ran straight to her room. The umbrella was leaning innocently against her desk, exactly in the same way she left it there. Yuzu reached out to touch it, but her hand stopped mid-air. Her heart pounded in her chest. She was afraid that it wasn't real, that it would just vanish.

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind out of those pesky thoughts.

Her hand finally touched the handle. It was by all means real. In fact it was so real that she let a short laugh when she gripped it in both her hands. It was so stupid! But now she was more than sure. She didn't meet a ghost. He was there. He was real. After all, he even touched her hand when he gave her the umbrella.

She smiled to herself and looked at her own hand. The smile didn't last for too long however.

He touched her hand back then, but now that she thought about it...

His hand was neither cold nor warm.

It felt... as if it was only a part of her imagination.


	2. In the Shadows

_Author note:_ Thank you so much everyone. I am glad that you find this story interesting enough to read :) I'll try to update a chapter once a week.

_Try_ is the keyword.

**\- Chapter 2: In the Shadows –**

It was still the middle of the day, but sunlight didn't seem to reach the world, trapped behind endless blanket of clouds. The sky was grey. Everything was quiet, not even the tiniest sound could be heard. No birds singing, no cars making a lot of noise, no people chatting. Absolutely nothing.

Yuzu was looking at the sky, but she didn't give a single thought to the reality around her. She couldn't forget about the meeting with the boy - with Yuya, but no matter how much she wanted to learn more about him, she didn't know where to look anymore. She felt as if she was chasing after a shadow.

No, that kind of comparison didn't seem right. Yuya wasn't a shadow. She didn't want to believe that he was a ghost either. She clearly remembered him. His smile, his bright red eyes full of life.

She didn't know why but something inside her told her she simply had to find him no matter what. But where to look? People at school didn't know anything. Maybe she wasn't looking hard enough. She knew his name so perhaps searching old articles or the Net for information would be a better choice.

Lost in her thoughts Yuzu suddenly noticed something odd. She was heading back home and yet she didn't recognize the street she was currently on. At first she thought that she must had taken a wrong turn somewhere, but the question was... where? She knew all the streets around here. She was raised in this city, after all.

She stopped herself from dwelling on that thought more than necessary and span around on her heel. She was about to head back the same way she came here, when from the corner of the eye something caught her attention. It was a person with an awfully familiar mop of red and green hair.

It was Yuya.

She didn't even notice when she started running towards him. She needed to talk to him, ask about what was going on here. She wanted to call to him, but her voice didn't seem to work. He turned around the corner, but when she reached it he was gone. All she saw before her was yet another unfamiliar street.

She took a few steps forward looking around, searching for him. He had to be somewhere around here, she thought to herself. And yet there was no trace of his presence anywhere.

The street seemed to suddenly become darker and darker. It was strange. It wasn't supposed to be this dark at this hour. She couldn't help but feel that it also got colder all of a sudden. But maybe it was only her imagination. She didn't know anymore.

The houses on this street looked abandoned. They weren't particularly old, some even looked pretty new, but they all appeared hollow and empty. There were no traces of people living in them. Not even curtains in the widows or lights that would betray human presence.

Suddenly something moved in the distance. Because of the darkness that slowly seem to change the day into a night, she didn't see what exactly it was. To her it looked like a black shadow and nothing more than that. Yuzu stopped in her tracks at first, but then she thought that maybe it was Yuya. A second later she was more than sure it was him. She still couldn't see clearly, but for some reason she had no doubt she was right about who she was seeing right now. Yuya slowly made his way toward the end of the street and then he came to a halt in front of one of the houses. He raised his head a little and seemed to be watching the building. Yuzu this time managed to call out to him, but he didn't seem to hear her at all. Or maybe he did? He quickly walked towards the house in front of him, as if he finally made up his mind.

She didn't see him open the door and walk inside though. He just... disappeared.

But then again, in the darkness it was hard to say if he vanished, hid somewhere or really entered the house. Yuzu wasn't going to just stand there. She was determined to find him and talk to him. And maybe even yell at him for running away from her. With that in mind she ran up to the house and was about to go inside...

But she stopped and her eyes widened when she saw how this house looked like.

It was definitely abandoned ages ago. The house probably used to be white once upon the time, but right now the white paint had become grey and dirty. All windows were either broken or had cracks in the glass. Through these widows one could see that tattered, old curtains were hanging inside the building. There were cracks in the walls here and there. Even the plants around the building withered away. In short, it was one of those houses that seemed like they were inhabited not by humans, but by ghosts. Yuzu could only imagine how bad it looked inside.

Nobody could possible live in that house. Yuya must had hidden there and was probably waiting for her to leave. Why else would he chose this kind of hideout? But she wasn't going to get scared that easily.

A second later more questions popped in her mind. Why was he running away from her anyway? Why didn't he want to talk to her? Maybe there was something he didn't want her to know? But she was just a stranger to him. Or maybe he knew she was asking about him at school?

Suddenly her gaze fell on one of the windows.

Something moved in there. She tried to see what is was, but to no avail. It was too dark inside. Then she smiled to herself. It was definitely Yuya trying to see if she left already - or at least that was what she thought at first. The curtains moved a little. She expected to see a familiar red and green mop of hair and a pair of warm red eyes.

But instead she saw something completely different.

A pair of grey eyes looking at her. They were cold, piecing and unfriendly. They seemed to be attached not to a face, but to the shadows that surrounded them. A deep, never ending darkness that filled the empty house.

The eyes stared right at her, right into her soul. They seemed like they were ordering her to leave at once. An unspoken threat hang in the air. She froze suddenly paralyzed by fear. She couldn't move, she couldn't say anything.

The curtains moved again and the eyes disappeared. In the silence she could hear her own heart beat. And footsteps. Somebody was coming closer and closer.

Why was she even hearing that? She was outside! It didn't made sense!

Her gaze drifted to the old front door. The doorknob turned and the door open slowly, creaking in a way that made her cringe at the sound.

She didn't want to know who – or what was beyond the door. She wanted to ran, to scream, to do something – anything! But she couldn't do any of that. Her voice didn't work, her legs didn't move, her heart couldn't stop beating. Blood seemed to freeze in her veins.

Form the half-opened door she could see darkness. There was someone standing in the midst of it.

But before she saw who it was she woke up.


	3. In Your Dreams

**\- Chapter 3: In Your Dreams –**

There is that moment, when you wake up form a terrifying dream and for a brief amount of time you think that the dream actually happened in reality. You look around, searching, trying to make sense of what is going on and you see your room with no danger to be found anywhere. Only then you realize your mistake. It all happened in your head. Soon the dream itself is nothing more than a vague memory and is quickly forgotten, not to come back ever again.

And so, when Yuzu opened her eyes and saw the ceiling of her own room she looked frantically around, as if expecting to see the dark shadow and those cold grey eyes. But as she pushed herself up into sitting position and thought carefully about it she finally realized what happened.

It was all a dream.

The shadows, the house, the cold eyes. All of that didn't exist.

"It was a nightmare." She told herself smiling wryly.

Now that she thought about it, it actually made sense. Lately she probably thought too much about Yuya so no wonder she couldn't forget about him even in her sleep. Yuya's mysterious accident and how little everybody knew about him would be just perfect as a part of a ghost story, so the nightmare that her tired mind produced didn't surprise her so much anymore. She still didn't know how those cold grey eyes fit into the picture, but she assumed there was no need to think about it. Dreams rarely made any sense, after all.

That was the moment when the dream should get more and more foggy, but for some reason it remained vivid in her mind and she could still feel the coldness of those piercing grey eyes. She shook her head, cast the covers aside and quickly stood up from her bed. She was not going to be afraid of some nightmare!

Suddenly she heard a noise outside the window and almost jumped, startled by it.

Moved by the wind a branch of the nearby tree was knocking on her window.

* * *

As the day went by the nightmare from the morning was still bothering Yuzu. She tried very hard to forget about it, but it turned out to be easier said than done. Almost as if the nightmare itself didn't want to be forgotten.

In the end, the girl was so lost in her own thoughts that even her classmates began worrying about her.

"Hey, what's wrong?" one of them asked.

Yuzu blinked as she was brought back to reality. She didn't realize that her thoughts were wandering this much.

"Huh? Ah, no..." she smiled awkwardly. She didn't know what to say. She was well aware that her classmate would feel uncomfortable if she mentioned Yuya again. She still remembered her reaction from the other day. "It's just… I had a really weird dream last night." She said finally, still trying to keep smiling and pretending that it was nothing to worry about. Quietly, she hoped it would be enough to reassure the other girl.

"Oh? What kind of dream?"

But her classmate seemed interested in it. Yuzu mentally sighed. What was she supposed to say now? She hesitated and averted her gaze from her friend.

"It was a really, _really_ weird one."

After hearing such a vague answer, her classmate nodded and waited with interest to hear more. But Yuzu didn't want to say anything else beside that. The silence fell between them and soon it grew awkward. The other girl just didn't want to give up. It seemed that she wanted to hear the story no matter how long she would have to wait.

Yuzu silently wished for the bell to ring and save her, but luck wasn't on her side today. Which meant only one thing – Yuzu had to tell her.

"It was about that guy… about Yuya." She explained, wondering how her classmate would respond to that.

The reaction she received was something that completely caught her off guard. The other girl suddenly smiled and her eyes widened in curiosity as she asked:

"Yuya? Who's that? Do I know him?"

Yuzu just stared at her, not believing her own ears. The girl on the other hand, looked at her expectantly, eyes sparkling with curiosity. They were both silent for at least a few minutes, before Yuzu managed to collect herself and still very confused stuttered:

"B-but… I told you about him. He's the one who gave me the umbrella two days ago when it was raining, remember? And it was you who told me his name…" Yuzu trailed off when she saw her classmate's expression. The other girl was clearly confused.

Yuzu was lost. None of this made any sense.

"What are you talking about? You've never told me anything like that." Her classmates said after another moment of long and definitely not comfortable silence. "And besides, it hasn't rained for weeks now!"

* * *

Sometimes people would have dreams so real that they would never realize they were dreaming. Yet after they wake up the memory of the dream slowly vanishes, soon to completely disappear.

But was it possible to have a dream so realistic that you were more than sure it actually happened, even after you woke up? Right now Yuzu was sure that yes, it was by all means possible. Seeing the events of the last days, Yuzu simply couldn't determine which parts were the dream and which weren't. To her everything seemed real. Everything stayed vivid in her memory.

The rain, the smile, the umbrella. Even the creepy house and eyes staring right into her soul.

Confused she walked back home slowly, thinking, trying to make sense out of all these crazy things. She wasn't looking where she was going, but it was fine. She walked this path countless times.

She finally reached the park, her home wasn't too far away from here. She thought to herself that maybe she should look for the umbrella again. If it was there, that would mean the dream wasn't a dream after all. And yet she already knew. She knew she wouldn't find _that_ umbrella at home.

It _was_ all a dream.

What was this feeling? She thought about Yuya again. She never met him. He didn't even exist. He was nothing more but a part of her dream.

But she wanted him to be real.

A dog barked at her.

She blinked and stopped in her tracks. A small puppy was sitting right in front of her. It had brown and white fur and barked at her a few more times. She took a look around. It didn't seem the owner of the dog was around.

"Hey. Where did you come from?" she asked the puppy trying to smile down at it. The moment she said those words the puppy ran up to her and barked, then ran just a few steps away, only to suddenly halt and turn around to look at her. It waited a moment, as if it wanted her to follow, but since she didn't move from her place the puppy returned to her and again looked at her with its big, round eyes.

Seeing that, Yuzu assumed the dog wanted to play with her. She was about to say something to it, but suddenly she heard a voice calling from the distance.

"En! En!"

The puppy's ears twitched and it turned around to the source of voice.

"En!"

It was a boy her age. He ran up to her and glared a little at the dog, before giving her an apologetic look.

"Sorry. Hope he didn't bother you or anything." And then he looked back at the dog. "Why did you run away anyway? Seriously..."

Yuzu was staring with wide eyes. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. The boy that stood in front of her was the boy from her dream! Suddenly she completely forgot about the scary house or cold grey gaze, as images of the boy with red eyes and cheerful smile flashed through her mind.

Red eyes and strangely colored hair.

"Hey? You okay?"

The moment she was brought back to reality she realized that the boy stood way too close to her. She blushed immediately and with all her strength pushed him away. In here it should be noted Yuzu was always strong and so, the boy stumbled and fall down with a loud _thud_.

"What are you doing?!"

And the next thing she knew he was sending her a glare.

"You looked like you saw a ghost or something. Is this how you treat people who show you concern?!" he fumed, standing up from the ground.

"You were too close." She replied. "But I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

He looked at her for a moment, anger slowly melting away from his face.

"Fine, fine."

She watched him for a moment. This boy was different from the one she met in her dream and yet his face was just the same. What was the meaning of this?

"You have that look again." The boy commented, bringing her back to reality.

"Ah, n-no..."

She tried to think of something to say. Telling him that he was similar to the boy from her dream would make her sound crazy. "Er, I was thinking... have we met before?"

The boy gave her a strange look, a bit confused, but there was something else in it as well.

"No, I don't think so."

Yuzu was silent, before a new idea popped in her mind.

"I'm Yuzu! Well, now you know me..." she let a soft awkward laugh. This probably wasn't the best idea she ever had, but... nothing else came to her mind.

The boy again looked at her as if he wondered what was she even saying, but eventually he smiled.

"I'm Yugo."

...Yugo. Not Yuya.

"What's wrong?"

"Ah, no, no! It's nothing." She replied quickly. He must have notice she made a disappointed look when he told her his name. But now it all made sense. Yugo didn't have red eyes like Yuya. His eyes were of clear blue color, his hair were blue with blond bangs. They were so much different.

And yet the face was just the same.

"Well, anyway. I gotta go now. C'mon, En!" he called to the puppy, but En didn't want to move. The dog kept staring at Yuzu as if expecting her to do something. With a frown, Yugo walked up to it and lifted it up from the ground. But the moment he did that, the dog started to struggle and bark, desperately trying to free itself. Yugo seemed to be completely caught off guard by that. He let go of the puppy and stared at it with wide eyes.

"...Does he always act like this?" Yuzu asked uncertain.

"No... no." Even Yugo sounded lost. "He hasn't acted this crazy since..." he trailed off. Yuzu looked at him. His expression was strange, clear blue eyes seemed to be filled with some kind of sadness that she didn't understand. She couldn't understand it.

Yet she knew that she shouldn't ask about it.

Yugo sighed and tried one more time taking the dog into his arms. This time he wasn't going to let go and after struggling for a moment En seemed to understand that. It whined a little, but stayed still in his owners arms. Yuzu gave it an apologetic look. For a moment she thought to herself that it would be nice if dogs spoke human language, so she could ask what was wrong with En.

On the other hand, Yugo looked relieved, but there was some sort of irritation in his voice when he spoke up again.

"I seriously don't get what's wrong with this dog sometimes."

"You're taking care of it alone?"

"No, but I have to most of the time. My brother could take care of it sometimes. En likes him more than me anyway!" he said in an annoyed tone.

Yuzu blinked.

"...You have a brother?"

Yugo didn't even look at her.

"Yeah. A younger brother." He said, irritation still sounding in his voice.

A younger brother. But why did Yugo sound irritated? But he has a younger brother. Could that mean...?

Yuya.

She wanted to ask if maybe his brother's name was Yuya, but she stopped herself from doing so. It would be stupid. She knew Yuya only from a dream, who knew if he even existed.

The two of them spoke just a moment longer about little, unimportant things and then Yugo left with a simple "bye".

And Yuzu stood there for another moment or two wondering if she was still dreaming.

* * *

**Author note: **Hello everyone. Since I wanted to have Yugo in this chapter I was waiting for his appearance in the anime and that's what caused such a huge delay! I'm very sorry!

As for Yuri. He will not appear in this story. From the very start it was supposed to resolve around Yuzu, Yuya, Yuto and Yugo. I'm not planning to add Yuri, because he simply won't fit in what I had in mind.


	4. In the Light

_Author note:_ Thank you everyone for all your reviews and fav/follows :) I'm very glad you find this story interesting. I don't have much time to write lately, so that's why it took me so long to update.

**\- Chapter 4: In the Light –**

She found herself in a strange place. It was neither dark nor bright in here. It was neither cold nor warm. There were no walls, but it didn't quite _feel_ like she was outside. And yet if you tried to narrowed your eyes to see something in the distance, you would realize that there was nothing there. Only silence.

Suddenly a soft, barely audible sound reached her ears. A child was crying. Her eyes darted around but she could not see anyone. So she began running in search for the crying child.

She was running and running, for minutes, hours, days, years, but she couldn't find a soul in this strange place. And then after the entire millennia had passed she finally ran out of strength to keep going. Her legs gave away and she fell on her knees. Yet, despite feeling so tired, she didn't want to give up. She could still hear the crying child.

_I'm not going to find him_, she finally thought to herself with saddens. Him? That was strange. How did she know it was a boy? _No_. She knew who was crying, she realized.

The sound of crying. She could hear it better now.

She turned around.

A boy was sitting on the ground, hugging his knees and burying his head as if to hide from the entire world. He was small, maybe eight or so, and had a strange red and green hair. He was still crying, still not aware that there was someone else here. She wanted to call his name, she was more than sure she _knew_ his name, but it slipped away from her mind.

So instead she asked him if he was okay. Now that she thought about it, he was so close to her that she could easily reach out and put a hand on his small shoulder.

Apparently startled, the boy slowly raised his head to look at her. His eyes were hidden behind goggles. One lens was obscured by a blue star.

Silence fell between them, as the boy was no longer crying, but he didn't reply either. She too didn't say another world as though a strange mysterious power prevented her from doing so. Then, all of a sudden a smile formed on the boy's lips. It looked almost cheerful, but she couldn't help but feel it was forced.

Only then she realized it was raining whole this time.

* * *

On her way back home she recalled the dream from this morning. This time she had dreamt about a small boy. It was a younger Yuya, she had no doubt about it, even though by now she could barely remembered how the child looked in her dream.

When she reached the park a small, brown puppy appeared on her way. _Again_.

Yuzu recognized En immediately and gave it a small smile. The dog barked and wagged its tail. Just like the day before it looked as if it wanted to tell her something. And just like the day before the owner of the dog – Yugo – quickly appeared and glared at the puppy.

"I really don't get what's wrong with this dog." He complained to her after they had both sat down on the nearby bench. En was sitting right in front of Yuzu, looking at her expectantly with its big round eyes. On the other hand Yugo looked somewhat tired as he was leaning back against the bench, his hands in his pockets, his gaze fixed on the small dog as he watched it with some sort of irritation.

"Maybe he just likes me?" Yuzu offered after a moment with a small amused smile. "And he wants to play?"

Yugo glanced at her, then shrugged. For some reason he didn't seem convinced. "Who knows," was his only reply. Yuzu frowned and stood up from her place a moment later.

"Well, it's worth giving a try. Come on, En!" She called to the dog. Then she looked around and quickly found a small stick that the puppy could easily fetch if she threw it. She smiled, showed the stick to the dog then threw it not too far, expecting that the puppy would run after it. But En merely looked at the direction she had thrown the stick and didn't move. Its gaze quickly returned to her. Yuzu blinked a few times feeling a little embarrassed, thinking that maybe she had done something wrong. She didn't know much about dogs after all. But when she looked at Yugo and saw his surprised face she knew that it was not her doing something wrong here.

Yugo stood up and tried to make En move, called to it, then yelled in irritation, but the dog didn't even budge, almost ignoring its owner. It barked a few times and always, always looked at Yuzu. Yugo shook his head after a moment and with a tired sigh said:

"Told you, this dog is just weird." And again Yuzu noticed something else in his eyes.

It looked like he was worried.

* * *

A steel fence grew tall, almost as if separating two worlds from each other. From her place on the street she could see a shadowy outline of a house behind it. But that was not the only thing that could be seen on the other side of the fence.

There was a small dog too. It looked so oddly familiar to her, but she could not remember where she had seen it. The moment it noticed her, it was barking and whining. _Listen to me_, it seemed to be saying, _I have something important to tell you_.

She tried. She tried to listen, but she didn't understand. She tried to walk closer, but the distance didn't shorten between her and the fence, almost as if she didn't move at all.

And the dog kept whining, more and more, sad and almost desperate. She felt bad and began to wish that she knew dogs' language, only to realize a moment later how silly that wish sounded. Humans have no way of knowing such a thing.

Suddenly a person walked up to the fence and crouched. Yuzu didn't know how or when did this person even get here, as the streets were completely empty as far as she knew. That thought was long forgotten though, when she realized who she was seeing.

The person - the boy was smiling warmly at the puppy. Seeing him, the dog went completely silent and wagged its tail happily, almost as if it was just reunited with its beloved master. The boy said something, but Yuzu didn't hear what. To her it just looked like he opened his mouth but made no sound at all.

The boy stood up and looked at the dog. She didn't see his face, but she somehow knew his expression was apologetic. The puppy still wagged its tail, then barked a few times, sitting down. The moment the boy turned around to leave, it began to whine once again.

_Don't leave._

Before Yuzu knew, these words escaped her lips. Only then the boy looked at her. Red eyes and a smile, that looked like a mask meant to hide sadness away. That was what she saw.

The boy was gone a second later. He disappeared. And she was alone again.

It felt like there was no one else in this world but her and the small puppy.

* * *

At this point she expected to see En again when she entered the park. And she was right. The small dog waited for her just like before. Yet, this time it seemed more restless than ever before. The moment it saw her it was running around from her and towards the path, then again to her. It seemed almost desperate to make her follow it as it started to tug at her socks in an attempt to make her move.

Yuzu didn't know what to do. Yugo would be here soon so maybe... That's right. Where was Yugo? He should had been here by now. Yuzu looked around, but there was no sight of him anywhere. And the dog continued to bark and whine at her.

Her eyes widened in fear.

"En, where is Yugo?!" She asked the dog and it barked in reply running a few steps away from her towards one of the paths. "Show me where he is!" she called and the dog started running.

She followed it with her heart pounding in her chest. She feared that something had happened to Yugo. The boy was always with En, after all, and now the puppy was all alone.

The two of them kept on running. Suddenly Yuzu saw an ambulance and blood in her veins froze with fear. But the puppy didn't stop. It kept running and running, not even stopping to see if she was still following it.

She didn't know for how long they were running, but at some point she stopped recognizing the buildings around her. Even though she lived here for so long she wasn't familiar with this area.

And then, when she thought she would no longer be able to run, the dog stopped in front of a house. Yuzu gave it a questioning look, but the puppy only looked at her then turned its head towards the building as if pointing. She followed its gaze... and her eyes widened in shock.

It was a house with brightly colored walls. It wasn't too big but it looked nice. She could imagine that many people would want to live in a place like this one. But that was not what shocked her. She knew this house, she had seen it before...

In her dream. It was the same house she saw in her dream. Even though it wasn't ruined and abandoned like the one from her nightmare, she could tell – no, she _knew_ it was the same one.

A dream about a house, a dream about a dog. Yuzu looked at the puppy beside her, at the way it seemed to be waiting for something. It felt like this small dog knew the answers to all her questions, like it was the key to understanding her dreams. Right now she had no doubt about it – her dreams weren't meaningless. Someone was trying to tell her something. Was it Yuya? Would she find him in this house?

She gazed at the building before her.

And then she remembered. This house in her dreams was dark and filled with unwelcoming shadows. The moment she thought about it she remembered those cold grey eyes staring right into her very soul and fear grabbed her heart. For a moment she stood there unmoving, fighting with herself. She wanted to leave, but if she wanted to find out the truth she couldn't do that.

She clenched her hand into a fist, finding determination and fighting her fears away. Stay calm, she must stay calm.

She quickly grabbed the dog and holding it in her arms she said:

"Let's go, En."

The dog barked in agreement and Yuzu couldn't help but give it a nervous smile.

Only then she remembered that she was supposed to find Yugo. She almost mentally slapped herself for forgetting about him. Finding the house from your nightmares and possible answers to all questions that had bothered you for some time now can do that to you.

But maybe thanks to this house she would also find a clue as to where Yugo is right now.

Something moved in the window, distracting her from her thoughts. A curtain. Just like back then, she thought. Just like in her dream. Or maybe she was still dreaming, maybe she couldn't tell the difference between the dream and the reality anymore.

She waited in silence, hugging En a little closer to herself.

The door opened slowly with an ominous crackling sound. Before she knew, a pair of cold grey eyes was staring at her.


End file.
